Some 10,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by tanks, pushed deep into Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad bastion on Tuesday, stamping the government's authority on an area until now outside its control.

The army said they met no resistance as they moved into Sadr City in the early hours, securing three quarters of the sprawling slum where hundreds have been killed in weeks of fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Shi'ite militants loyal to Sadr.

A truce 10 days ago between Shi'ite factions largely ended the fighting in one of Baghdad's poorest districts and paved the way for Tuesday's operation.

The truce agreement called on gunmen loyal to Sadr to lay down their arms and on the government to restore control over Sadr City.

10,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by tanks, pushed deep into Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad bastion on Tuesday, stamping the government's authority on an area until now outside its control.

Kicking ass and taking names!!! Wohooooo!!!! (Hopefully the media can find 50 that took a lunch break to make them all look bad)

But of course the goon who wrote the story had to add: “Peter Harling, a Damascus-based analyst at the International Crisis Group thinktank, doubted Tuesday’s operation would succeed in removing the Mehdi Army from Sadr City. ‘They’ll lie low but they could retake control of the city any time...’”.

Now’s the time to start cleaning up and modernizing that ‘sprawling slum’, and maybe folks won’t be so enamored of Mookie in the future, because he obviously did nothing for them except bring grief and violence down on their heads.

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